Field
The field of the invention relates to sensory delivery systems and more particularly relates to a precise automated haptic system. Specifically, the invention relates to a modular haptic system with programmable logic for the latent-free and target specific delivery of variable air flow and temperature to mimic a realistic somatosensory experience in an immersive entertainment environment.
Related Art
Virtual Reality (VR) aims to simulate a user's physical presence in a virtual environment. Over the past decade, with the rapid development of computer-generated graphics, graphics hardware, and modularization of processing elements and system components, VR has been ushered into the next revolution—Immersive Multimedia. Small-form factor devices, such as data gloves, haptic wearables, and head-mounted gear, have all enhanced the immersive experience in the virtual reality environment. Now, with the advent of sophisticated tracking technology, this immersive experience has even extended to the cinema experience; viewers will be able to change their perspective on a scene based on the position tracking of their eye, head, or body. This immersive and active viewing experience is poised to alter the way in which we will consume content in the future.
Along with a number of immersive developments in the virtual reality industry, there have been a number of developments in enhancing the sensory experience for a user. For example, force feedback in medical, gaming, and military technology is very well known in the art. 4-D movie theaters, replete with motion rocking, have long been providing viewers with a life-like experience. Developers have increased the sensory definition by stimulating a plurality of senses with an exceptionally high degree of realism.
Scientists from York and Warwick in England have developed a virtual reality cage called a Virtual Cocoon, in which a user is enveloped by a planetarium-style screen, not only surrounded by a stereoscopic visual and sound, but also by a sense of smell, touch, and even taste. This fully immersive, perceptual experience blurs the line between what is real and what is not. Holovis manufactures full motion domes-immersive and interactive platforms designed primarily for gaming, but can be scaled up for group interactive experiences. Stereoscopic projectors are edge blended and synchronized with ride motion technology, along with delivering a range of other sensory stimulants, such as smell and heat.
Likewise, there are a number of patent references providing for VR systems that deliver haptics. However, much like the Cocoon and Holovis, the background patent references provide a plurality of sensory mechanisms integrated with a user-surrounding platform or rig. The use of VR or entertainment platforms featuring a plurality of sensory mechanisms is well established in the background art, but not as individualized devices with home-use and universal integration capabilities. Moreover, there are no claims or disclosure in the prior art addressing individualized units coupled to a code instructing variable air intensity and temperature, stimulating a wide range of variable haptic situations in a virtual reality environment.
What's more, none of the extant systems teach a system or method for processing the audio/video input for generating a real-time haptic command output, wherein the said output drives a variety of haptic effects from the modular haptic tower: wind effects, velocity, sudden impact, blast, water misting, and, or strike impact or pressure. As the foregoing illustrates, there is currently a gaping void for a home-use, stand-alone device, that may integrate into a variety of experience systems, and deliver target specific haptics with next generation realism. Users no longer will have to rely on attending a VR convention or gaming room in order to experience this heightened immersion and sensory experience. No longer will they have to commit to large and cumbersome installations and platforms. Finally, with targeted haptics delivery, the sense of realism and immersion will be taken to the next level—all from the convenience of one's own home, and most importantly, free from content support hurdles trapping content within provider and developer silos.
Finally, the extant systems do not employ learning based approaches to complement the user input or virtual environmental input in order to provide additional context for a haptic command. Extant systems do not continuously learn and update a deep neural network or discriminative library, which attempts to dynamically learn the haptic-commanding events in a user's surrounding, in order to create shortcuts in the input processing. Such shortcuts may cut down on latency between input and haptic output, providing for a substantially more real-time experience. Moreover, such shortcuts may reduce the load bearing of the system and increase overall compute efficiencies. Learning based approaches may additionally predict for location of an event at time interval t, and furthermore, predict a variety of coefficients based on a reference parameter, and command for a specific haptic output. However, extant solutions for reactively and predictively tracking events in a virtual environment are lacking, and therefore, there is a need for a computationally efficient solution for solving the problem of event tracking (reactively and predictively) in a virtual environment, and coupling to a haptic command/output.